Review of 2016 and on to 2017

I haves meant to put this post out at the start of 2017, but was delayed by the birth of my princess and preparations for CNY.

I have not really been reviewing my portfolio and stuff since 2014. Looking back, re-reviewing myself, and writing on the blog, actually holds me accountable for my own progress, as well as being a chronicle of my past decision making, be it good or bad.

I wanted to restart this blog with a different focus, but haven’t had the time to do it. Procrastination had set in, along with a myriad of excuses (Which shouldn’t be there in the first place).

First thing, I realised recently that this blog had been extremely useful for myself to track my past purchases, and the reasons for it. What I know today and what I know then is very different, and I cringed at some of the purchases I made in the past.

Next, while I have grew very little in terms of portfolio value over the last 2 years, upon reflection, I realised my cash had gone significantly into
1) Wedding preparations.
2) Housing
3) Shared portion of car loan and misc expenses
4) Baby preparations
5) Purchases of various wants (this amounted to quite a fair bit)

The busy past few months... and some lessons I learned

Past few months were crazy. First up was the HDB renovation. For a 5-room flat, I managed to finish the complete the renovation within a budget of $40k inclusive of furnishings. Guess I was pretty lucky to chance upon IKEA's sale and save a few hundred dollars on furniture. A 55" TV, LED lighting, built-in wardrobe, big dining table. My $40k isn't used up yet I guess, didn't really count, but there are still some portions of the house which need building, but it's pretty much done. :) And typing this blog post as I sit in my study room, of which furnishings come entirely from IKEA.

Next was my wedding in the early part of June. Photoshoots, actual day videos and bridal packages set me back nearly $27k. Ouch. But overall, it was pretty manageable in terms of finances. This excludes all the misc, i.e. lunch buffet at church, wedding banquet, etc. But if I include everything in, $60k was probably the costs. Still less than the $100k incurred by the couple on newspaper who went into debt just to get married.

While the government is encouraging couples to marry younger, I realised that at 30, with our combined finances, house renovations and wedding was pretty comfortable on the financial side. No stress and no need for any sacrifice for things we wanted. Certainly no need for any debt. The next big expenditure would probably be kids.


Next up for the month of July, I conducted olympiad trainings for 4 different schools. That was pretty crazy for the month because this is on top of my usual tuition workload. I also involved myself in a startup on indoor positioning systems. Basically, in the near future, you might probably see the fruits of our labour involving you somehow in some parts of your daily life :)

Finally, I have been studying more about businesses past few months, watching shows like Millionaire Intern on BBC Knowledge. What I see is that many businesses struggle because there was minimal sales. Even though their products or services may be very very good, as long as the sales are dismal, the business will not grow or may eventually go obsolete. The goal of marketing is to generate leads, and eventually conversion of leads to purchasers.

And in show Millionaire Intern, it seems that everything boils down to knowing marketing well. Personally, I have been studying more on copywriting, as well as experimenting different forms of marketing, on FB, Google, etc. I now have an idea of why some of the previous experiments failed, and probably will be adding my fix to it. Many many things learned, which boils down to even more application. Till then...

2013 target: Building Assets to create more passive income streams

I was thinking back on the times when I just graduated in May 2008. That was when I finished university exams and started work as an engineer, almost 4.5 years ago.

Fast forward to 2012 now, I resigned from my engineer job and went into tuition full-time. Seriously, I still wonder if it was the correct move. But as my girlfriend told me, look forward and don't look back. It's never easy to strike out solo. [On hindsight, my previous company is freezing the pay of its employees a second time since 2008 due to losses.]

Without the security of a stable income, and with a little more time on my hand these days, I begin to think of how to how to bring on more income streams to supplement the meagre tuition income I'm receiving. My main consideration now is not to just bring on more business for tuition, but to build value and assets out of this business.


In essence, I need to build assets as much as I can. Asset rich cash poor strategy. The areas I will be looking at....

1) Building Paper Assets, i.e. equity portfolio.
In 2012, I have made some changes to my portfolio. The main strategy is to sell stocks with lower dividend yield while realising the paper gain. This include GLP, CMA and Capitaland, and this will boost my war chest as well as improve liquidity. I will be analysing and be more focussed on quality dividend counters (there is none that is interesting now).

As of today, I have received $11.1k from my equity portfolio. With dividends still coming from SPH, REITs and telcos, I will comfortably cross $12k in dividends this year.

However, it is worthy to note that without a stable income, building this will only prove more and more challenging. Which means I have to look at other streams as well......

Goal 2013

As the year draws to a close, it's time for me to set my goals and visions for the years ahead so that I have a clear path and direction to take.

My goals for 2010 are here:

http://wealthbuch.blogspot.com/2009/11/goal-2010.html

Completion Report:

1) Goal of achieving $1k average dividends per month, i.e. $12k dividends a year
Achieved!

2) Goal of setting up ExamWorld to a super big site to help more students
Didn't update much. Will continue to build it.

3) Goal of achieving at least USD$20 per month in adsense income.
Failed. Got banned from adsense. :( 
Could be a blessing in disguise as I'm planning other things.

4) Writing my own notes for my tuition students, and eventually be able to publish and sell to the different schools in Singapore
Started, progressing ok.

5) Goal of reaching $200k (SGD) networth in equities and MMF
Will be achieved next month! Currently at $196k+. Excludes CPF.

Preliminary Plans on Goal 2011

As the year approaches the 3rd quarter finish, some plans are already forming in my head for Goal 2011. The first 8 months of 2010 were good to me, but somehow, plans for next year have started to form in my head by itself. Perhaps I'm a little too impatient :)

For Goal 2010, the paths, strategies, methods, I have taken appeared to be bringing me closer to fulfilling my goals. The work was hard, at times tough, but the result is that I'm closer than ever to achieving my goals set out at the start of 2010. The only exception was ExamWorld, of which I have not updated much due to my hectic schedule.

My plans for coming year are in a way slightly different from 2010, yet in a way, similar. The growth of networth will still be on my checklist, but this time round, there will not be any concrete goals. This is because I will be planning to shift focus to a few things during the first half of the year where my tuition sideline (which is seasonal) will not take up as much of my time as now.

Half-yearly update on Goal 2010

Half of 2010 has passed! The last time I reviewed myself was my quarter review here.

1) Goal of achieving $1k average dividends per month, i.e. $12k dividends a year
Since the quarter review, I purchased an additional 19 lots of Aztech at 0.24, raising my average to 0.2338 and my total number of lots to 50 lots. In addition, I topped up more AIMSAMPIREIT at 0.205 till I have 70 lots. However, I sold my remaining Singtel lots at $2.97, but failed to buy back at $2.90 :(
I believe I will be able to buy back Singtel at a lower price.

My Personal Goal 2010 Updates (Quarter Review)

A quarter of 2010 has passed! The last time I reviewed myself was right after Chinese New Year in February.

1) Goal of achieving $1k average dividends per month, i.e. $12k dividends a year
I purchased 31 lots of Aztech and 45 lots of AIMSAMPIREIT at 0.215 since my last review. In addition, I have bought in another 60 lots of Saizen warrants with the intention to exercise the warrants in the near future, and sold 2 lots of Singtel at 3.12 to average down my 2 lots to 2.89.

Also, I have combined my investing and dividend baskets into one basket ==> long term basket.

My Personal Goal 2010 Updates

We are now fresh into the Tiger Year! A quick look at my Goal 2010 and how far I have progressed:


1) Goal of achieving $1k average dividends per month, i.e. $12k dividends a year
With the divestment of MIIF and into Starhub, my average monthly dividends from my dividend portfolio is now $506.50. It has crossed the $500 mark.

If I include my 2 lots Capitaland (10.5 cts latest), 5 lots Breadtalk (1 cent) and 4 lots Singtel (6.2 cents) into the equation, it would be $569 on average per month.

Never Give Up!

Whenever you feel like you will never make it, think back of this video and don't give up!

Starting on Goal 2010

Back from reservist.

I have started on writing notes for my tuition students according to Goal 2010 as mentioned earlier in my 4th goal. Hence, will be rather busy from today onwards.

The rat's race is starting all over again. Back to the real world :(



I will do an analysis of the market when I have the time this weekend.

Goal 2010

As the year draws to a close, it's time for me to set my goals and visions for the year 2010 so that I have a clear path and direction to take.

My goals for 2009 are here:
http://wealthbuch.blogspot.com/2009/08/personal-goals.html

Completion Report:

1) Goal of matching my full-time engineer (fresh grad) pay with my tuition income
Goal achieved.

Personal Goals

Goal setting is something very important. It gives one direction, vision, and clarity on which pathway to proceed when at a crossroad. Being able to set realistic goals (ok, maybe slightly tougher than realistic) is an extremely ingredient to achieve financial freedom. One of the aims of this blog is to help myself pen down thoughts, set goals, evaluate myself, and constantly remind myself of my goals.


Before starting this blog, I had set myself at the start of 2009 some personal goals. I shall recap some, and give some comments.

1) Goal of matching my full-time engineer (fresh grad) pay with my tuition income
Comments: Well, I graduated in May 2008. Target achieved. I managed to earn tuition ang pow money of average twice my post CPF engineer pay between May to now.

Target exceeded :)